Tie a Pink Ribbon
by Mysteriol
Summary: Because there are none other like Aerith who'd go around tying pink ribbons onto people's arms simply because it's her birthday. [Cloud x Aerith, fluff]


Tie a Pink Ribbon

_happy birthday, aerith. _

_cloaer. _

_in-game. _

_A/N: _

_yet another cloaer fic, though hyne knows how long it's been. For Aerith's birthday on February 8, 'cause I say so, and can also be taken into context as a pre-Valentine's day gift as well. The pink ribbons here are a pre-empt to those you see on the FFVII cast characters' forearms - the ones they wear - in FF:AC, after Aerith's death. I really really liked how they chose to remember Aerith this way wearing the pink ribbons on their sleeves and thus this idea came to my mind. Perhaps, these pink ribbons, really were Aerith's idea herself after all. _

_And those pink ribbons were really Aerith's idea. Cloud x Aerith, fluff _

_-_

Cloud looked more torn than confused, as he held the pink ribbon in between two fingers. He then stared, perplexed, at Aerith, who was currently gazing up at him with the most cheery of eyes, and the best smile she could offer hopefully. "Um, _what_?" Okay, Strife, he thought dumbly to himself, that was sure as hell not a response to make towards the girl you've been thinking lately about day and night.

His face flushed hotly. I was not thinking about her!

_Yeah right. _The small voice in his head argued. Cloud ignored it.

"I said, you have to tie this pink ribbon around your forearm, like this!" On cue, Aerith carefully picked the velvet material between Cloud's fingers, and began to tie it carefully around his forearm. Cloud tried very hard not to think about how her bare fingers were brushing against his naked skin.

Stupid tingles. He was _not _supposed to feel like he was enjoying this...this close proximity between them. But right now, Cloud knew if Yuffie was to see him, she'll probably laugh at him and say how he looked like a chocobo-jock right now. "You know you always look like a chocobo-jock whenever Aerith's around!" She'll nudge him in the ribs and bug him mostly.

"...Why?" Cloud knew if Yuffie was going to say anything about his hair resembling that of a chocobo, he'll kill Cait Sith. He'll definitely kill that cat for spreading rumors about his hair looking like ruffled feathers around the place.

"Because you always look like you've just ridden a chocobo around the track two-hundred and fifty-two times!" There was no reason why Yuffie always chose two-hundred and fifty-two as the number, but Cloud guessed that meant even a dense, sixteen year old girl like Yuffie could tell Aerith had the power of making him blush twenty-four hours anytime.

Cloud blinked. Something was waving at him. No, someone.

"Earth to Mr. Strife!" Aerith giggled.

"...Captain Cloud reporting." He replied, then realized how lame it must have sounded. What was he thinking!? He cracked open an eye, only to notice a pink little some_thing _about his forearm. He looked down. It was a piece of pink ribbon. Oh right, Aerith had instructed him to tie it around there, but he had refused to, because he didn't see the point in it.

And pink was far from being Cloud's favorite color. Pink reminded him of marshmallows, gummy sweets, cotton candy. Pink reminded him of all things sweet...and pink just didn't suit him, because Cloud Strife was anything but sweet. In fact, Cloud thought pink only looked nice and very pretty only when associated with Aerith.

_Urge to think dangerous thoughts rising! _He thought hastily, and quickly diverted the direction of his thoughts. He looked away, casted his eyes far-off. "Um, thanks." He muttered dumbly.

"For what?" She asked him quizzically, and was patting his arm where a ribbon hung down in a butterfly knot.

Cloud realized he didn't know why he said thanks for. So he focused his eyes on the pink ribbon, and asked Aerith this time, seriously. "What is it?"

"Awww, Cloud! Are you really pretending to play dumb with me, or do you really not know what day is it, today?" She pouted, stuck out her bottom half of her lips. It took Cloud quite a lot not to lick his lips as well.

"Uh...It's Christmas?" He scratched his head, and earned himself a poke in the arm. "Ow." He mumbled, and rubbed his slightly bruised skin.

"Cloud!" Aerith sounded horrified. "Christmas was two months ago!" She made a face, huffed it up, then buried it in her hands. Cloud was beginning to worry a lot, when Aerith began to make muffled sniffling noises behind them.

"A-Aerith, are you alright?" His pulse jumped. Man, he had fought thousand of big huge monsters double the size of him, but watching Aerith like she was about to cry freaked him out more than anything. "I'm sorry if I forgot--"

"You should be sorry, Cloud!" She huffed, and placed her hands on her hips. She crinkled her nose. Cloud noticed how her eyes shone under the lights of Gold Saucer. "It's my birthday!"

_My birthday..._

_It's Aerith's birthday...Her birthday. Oh...crap._

Cloud had the urge to half-whack himself in the head, and half-disappear within the grounds. It was Aerith's birthday, and he had not remembered, at all! And people called him their leader. That was a bunch of bullshit. Cid would have kicked his ass if he knew what their so-called leader had done.

"You trying ta tell me you fuhgot Aerith's birthday!? #&#, Cloud!" Cid, or Barret would say that. Even Cait Sith, as Cloud lately discovered, was capable of blurting out strings of curse words even the cat probably did not know what they meant.

Cloud ran a hand through his blond, spikey hair. "Oh..."

Is that all I can say to someone's birthday? I'm an idiot. He thought bitterly.

He received a light punch in his shoulder, and he looked down into alluring, soft eyes. Cloud swore at the time, that he ever lived to age two-hundred and fifty-two(Yuffie's favorite digits), he would never forget the look in her face. It reminded him of some goddess-like angel. Or a mixture of both.

"So that's why you'll have to wear this pink ribbon, see?" She lifted her hand, to show him yet another one between her fingers. Her smile was arresting to the soul. Cloud felt as if some weird sledgehammer had suddenly pummelled into his chest. He found it very difficult to breath suddenly. Damn, why did she have to go and smile like that?

"...Why?" He was curious.

"This pink ribbon's almost like me," she cheerfully told him, "so if you wear this ribbon on your arm, it's almost as if I'm there with you, even when I'm not!"

Cloud quirked an eyebrow. He really didn't mean to sound rude, but... "But aren't you here with us already?"

"Oh, Cloud!" She pulled a face, and he felt his stomach being a suckerpunch for her teasing smile, "I can't be with you all the time today! So for example, if I step aside or something," she took three steps back to prove her point, and held up both hands, where a pink ribbon dangled from one, "then you won't have to miss me so much, because I'm there with you!"

Cloud's eyebrows furrowed. "...Where?" He looked around.

"Cloud, you doofus!" She shook her head, giggling, before skipping ahead to point a finger down the pink ribbon he wore on his arm. "I told you already, I'll always be right here with you, because this pink ribbon symbolises me!" She corrected with a wide smile, "Well, sort of, anyway!"

"...I see." He quietly stated, as he began to finger the soft material. It was very pink, alright. And it felt velvety, just like...like Aerith's hair. Or the cloth of her pink dress. Or something like that.

Cloud's face burnt. He wasn't supposed to think like that. Bad thoughts, bad thoughts. He reprimanded himself.

"So you'll wear it?" She looked up at him hopefully. Her eyes were a catchy emerald color.

Cloud nodded, and he didn't want to admit it. Not over his dead body. But with Aerith, she made him feel like a million different things - some of them included awkward, funny, shy, boyish, yadda yadda. He lost count, anyway. And Cloud didn't want to blush in front of Aerith, or he'll never hear the end of Yuffie and her Cloud-looks-like-a-chocobo-jock short stories again.

And he was smiling a little, _just a little _(he was sure of it), back at her. "Uh-huh."

"And what's that supposed to mean, Cloud?" Aerith feigned ignorance, but she was truly smiling already. Not the fun-loving, flirty smile that she always had ready at her disposal saved for Cloud, but the genuine, beautiful one all the same.

"It means," he softly replied, as he looked down at the pink ribbon at his arm with a neat butterfly knot, "I'll wear it, Aerith."

"Really?" Her eyes instantly acquired a luminiscent tinge to them. "Thanks, Cloud!"

Now, Cloud had fought nearly two-hundred and fifty-two monsters in the Gold Saucer's Battle Arena, and had sweated buckets and fretted over getting k.o.ed upon those grounds. But nothing, _nothing, _could have prepared him ever for the swift, sudden, quick motion, where Aerith had leant in to kiss his cheek softly.

Just a kiss, and then she pulled away just as quickly.

And Cloud thanked whichever deity (though he was not religious by heart), for ensuring Yuffie didn't pop out of nowhere to point, make faces and yell, "And Cloud looks like a chocobo-jock with his face! Look at HIS FACE!"

"Uh, what was that?" He ran his hand through his hair. He noticed he liked to do that alot whenever he was nervous, or ran out of things to say. And he usually only did that around Aerith. Okay, that said alot.

"In Cloudology, it means," she offered him an entrancing smile that made his insides turned, "I appreciate that alot! For wearing my heart on your sleeve, anyway."

With that, Cloud looked down at the tiny ribbon he wore. He thought how Aerith really had good skills in tying beautiful butterfly knots, then nearly whacked himself in the head for thinking BAD-THOUGHTS again.

"Um, sure..." He shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome, I guess."

_I sound corny. _Cloud thought. So much for the bad-boy, be-a-man-and-I'm-cool image. How come Vincent could do it, and he didn't even have to try as hard, and already appealed to the mass fangirls by just flicking that cloak over his shoulders just like that? (insert: snap of a finger). Cloud shrugged...Maybe sleeping in a coffin for so many years sure as hell helped that cool-boy image a lot.

Anyway, Aerith was pulling out more and more pink ribbons from her pockets.

"What are you doing?" Cloud asked.

"I'm going to find the rest, and tie these onto their arms, too! So they'll remember me the same way as you're remembering me now!" She chirped, and bounced on her feet slightly.

"But," Cloud was confused, "why do we have to remember you, when you're right here with us?"

"Well, today's a special day for me! So if I say you'll have to remember me like this, you can't ask why! You just have to, Cloud!" She teased.

"O...kay..." He shrugged, then tilted his head sideways. It hit him then. "I'm the first one with the ribbon?"

"Yup!"

"...Oh. Why?"

"Because you're special, Cloud!"

And he didn't, and couldn't, find a reply to that.

She twirled on her feet. "I'll go find the rest now! I won't be for long, Cloud!" He thought she looked very pretty with the wind blowing her hair around the place like that, messing it all up. "And you won't have to miss me, 'cause my pink ribbon will be right there with you!" With those words, she spun, and broke out into a jog. Cloud did not miss the bright, vibrant smile she tossed over her shoulders in time.

To be honest, Cloud didn't think anyone would have proclaim today was her birthday as proudly as Aerith would. But then again...this was Aerith. And that meant the impossible was possible, and the unexpected, expected.

Cloud blinked.

"Aerith!" He called out.

She paused in her tracks, pivoted.

It took Cloud all his twenty-one years of discipline and self-control not to swoon from the dazzling smile she sent in her way.

"Yes?" Her eyes twinkled. Seven other ribbons dangled from her fingers. Cloud didn't have to count. He knew them all by heart - for Tifa, for Vincent, for Nanaki (Aerith refused to call him Red XIII. "Nanaki's a nice name," she'll tell everyone), for Cait Sith, for Cid, for Barret, for Yuffie.

"Happy birthday, Aerith." Cloud finished quietly. Then, proceeded to run a hand through his hair. He probably looked like two chocobo-jocks put together with the amount of tomato shades on his face. Yuffie isn't here, Yuffie isn't here, he chanted the mantra to himself repeatedly.

"Thanks, Cloud!" She waved her hands. But Cloud thought he really, really saw her face flushing till the shades of a chocobo-jock, too. Or maybe he was just dreaming what he wanted to see. "See you later!"

And she was gone, just like that.

Cloud looked down at the pink ribbon he wore on his arm again - the one she had taken careful efforts to tie into a lovely butterfly knot. The wind blew his hair into a tousled mess, threatening his hair wax to loose its hold, but Cloud, for once, didn't care if his spikey-do got messed up.

"See you." He whispered, to no one in particular, then fingered the soft material that was the pink ribbon.

Yes, Aerith was right. He wouldn't have to think of her anymore, when he now wore her heart, on his sleeve.

**owari **

_and a very happy birthday, aerith, _

_as well as a happy valentine's day for you, and cloud-kun! (now THAT sounds weird) _

_reviews are warmly appreciated. _


End file.
